RICK SMITH: Recalling forgotten fires

Residential fires often as tragic as better-known ones

SAN ANGELO, Texas - We remember our famous fires of the past: The Landon Hotel, Lake View High School, Belaire Elementary, The Three Sisters on South Chadbourne, even the Cactus Hotel, which might still be a retirement center if not for a small but scary basement fire that changed its destiny.

What we forget are the less-known fires that don't make such a mark in history, the fires that change — or take — lives, then quickly are forgotten by those of us who weren't part of the tragedies.

Several fires in recent weeks are a good examples. In years to come, we may not remember the determined firefighters who kept beating back the flames from warehouses, a seafood restaurant and, most recently, an apartment building.

Watching flames leap from the Monday's apartment fire on 1st Street, I wondered how anyone could witness such a scene and not have it burned into memory.

My desk's not far from the newsroom's fire and police radio. The dreaded "structure fire" calls come in with surprising regularity, sometimes several times a day. Some are minor: quickly extinguished stove fires or small grass fires.

But when you hear the radio dispatcher call for "Ladder One," "Rescue One," and a long list of other fire vehicles, you know trouble's happening, and help's on the way.

Each fire tells a different story and the villains are everything from exploding heaters, faulty fireplaces, electrical short circuits and arsonists to children playing with lighters.

Looking back at stories of local fires in 1985 I was struck by how no two were alike.

At least two people died from flames or smoke that year, and others were injured.

Oct. 11, 1985: "I was in the restroom. When I came out the couch was full of fire," a 24-year-old mother who grabbed her three small children and led them out the front door of their apartment told the newspaper.

"We lost everything," she said. "But we'll be all right."

March 23, 1985: A 77-year-old woman and her 2-year-old granddaughter were sleeping on a couch when the woman woke to the smell of smoke. She took the child outside, to a bystander, then went back inside her home to fight the flames with a garden hose.

"She got tired and she was just sitting down when we got here," a firefighter told a reporter.

"She's very upset. She's lost her house."

Aug. 12, 1985: Even so, some fire victims weren't so fortunate.

A 60-year-old woman died about 3 a.m. from massive burns when a fire consumed her mobile home.

A neighbor who tried to save the woman said he made at least three attempts to get in the mobile home's front door, but it was too hot to enter.

Jan. 3, 1985: Some stories had happier endings. Three children home alone escaped unharmed when a faulty doorbell transformer started a closet fire in the room where two of the younger children were sleeping.

The oldest child, 9 years old, was watching television in another room when he smelled smoke, checked on the sleeping children and found the closet on fire.

"He closed the closet door, then got the two little ones out of the house," a firefighter said. "No one was injured."

June 24, 1985: Some fire stories should never be forgotten.

"Fire ripped through a home at 310 W. Washington Drive early today, sending a 73-year-old woman to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation," the newspaper reported.

A firefighter, Lt. Gus Charlton, carried her out of the home.

"She had quit breathing," he told the paper. "I saw her on the floor, the room was on fire, and I went in the after her."

Rick Smith is a local news and community affairs columnist. Contact Rick at rsmith@gosanangelo.com or 325-659-8248.